or are the. back to the big picture i'm tom hartman well coming up in this half hour can corporations really have the power to control what we know and don't know about the very building blocks of life well they soon could the supreme court allow corporations to patent the human genome and what effect would that have on our lives and all across this country americans are dying a slow painful death thanks to this nation's toxic and unhealthy food system what should the federal government be doing to ensure that all americans have access to safe and healthy foods.

to the rest of the news corp's want to claim ownership of the most basic building blocks of life in the supreme court may just let them last friday the high court agreed to hear a case and whether or not corporations can patent human gene it's the case centers on the company myriad genetics which is trying to patent two genes related to breast cancer that's giving that company a monopoly on genetic testing for breast cancer on the court in two thousand and ten block the patents another decision this year agreed with marriage in attics that the genes can indeed be at and now it'll be up to the supreme court to issue the final ruling the a.c.l.u. argues the singes genes are a product of nature they shouldn't be at and noble and executive director of the public patent foundation said the government does not have the right to give

a corporation the exclusive power to control what we know about our own genetic make up a ruling is expected in june but what might the implications be like happened tony joins me now he is an attorney. and the host a ring of fire radio mike welcome back. i'm great i hope you are two. very good paddy human genes what's your take on this well out of the legal argument is simple legal argument i mean the genes are a product of nature in they don't qualify for a patent the second part of the legal the purely legal argument is that the patent system has a constitutional mandate they've always operated under a constitutional mandate to promote in vigorously expand the progress of science throughout the world but take it away from the legal argument look at the practical argument the simpler commonsense argument is that if a corporation has a patent over a human d.n.a. then that corporation is only going to focus on how they can make

a profit from that patent how they can make a profit from that d.n.a. to the detriment of human life and human well being for example in this case as you pointed out this company wants to control they want control over a gene that shows that a woman's predisposed to suffer from breast cancer ovarian cancer well the the corporation has a clear plan the reason they want to hold this patent is they want to exclude they want to prevent course they want to can prevent hospitals and universities and research centers from conducting competitive testing and competitive laboratory ass a that might successfully detect genetic predisposition in a patient so it's look it's a new medical industrial complex there's twenty three thousand genes out there five thousand have already been patented. thomas jefferson was famously opposed to have laws being actually at all i mean he himself never patented anything and he

was a prolific inventor but he felt that wrote several times that if we must have patent laws they shouldn't last more than three years because there's really no such thing as a new invention everything. is merely a fine tuning of something that preceded it where are we now with patent law and that that three year limit would then promote you know the interest of science where we out with have laws right now how they changed over the last few generations yet there are so many ways to have a pad in the for infinity i mean all they have to do is make a simplification a change an alteration a modification and then modify that pattern and it's simply project to project itself generation to generation the problem that we see when that happens is that stifle science in this situation for example what you're going to find is the inability to take this very important gene in diagnose women that might be

developing cancer or even come up with a therapeutic treatment for women who might be developing cancer because this company once they get in to get the patent possession of the bad they'll tweak it just a little bit to where they still hold that that patent you know for the rest of time . think about this because they have control of this patent tom there's we might not be able to eradicate this disease think of this had this been in place when polio was we were faced with polio we were faced with smallpox science would not have been able to succeed they wouldn't have been able to move ahead because they weren't they would have been able cooperate they would have been able to share research but this federal court ruled two to one in the lower you know from the standpoint of reversing a lower court and they've turning their turning science research on its head in telling us that it's more important for a corporation to make

a profit than it is for a woman to save or alive that's pretty amazing and and seemingly quite unconstitutional lets go of out of politics republicans put out their counter proposal yesterday to you know president obama said. ok here's who i want to raise taxes on now you tell me what you want to cut in the public and said ok cool no tax hikes on the rich but let's raise the eligibility age for medicare let's cut hundreds of billions out of social insurance programs your take on this well my take is that the democrats and the republicans tom are both ignoring the obvious and that is wall street put us here wall street burned down the economy we then gave wall street trillions of dollars for their bad we then gave them bonuses and now if they really wanted to solve this problem they would again have courage to put on the on the table if we want to tax somebody let's tax the people who put us here let's add some type of sales tax to wall street transactions where we're

securities are exchanged and in derivatives are sold and bonds are exchanged there's always been this notion we can't tax we can't tax wall street if you put even a fraction of a tax on those transactions tom you would have more than enough to wipe out this deficit and it's not unheard of look in the u.k. they've been doing this for three hundred years so what we're doing is we're missing who's responsible everybody has is looking in the wrong direction we're focusing on medicare we're focused on social security why does it have somebody have the courage to say look why the hell are we here to begin with we're here because we're we're because of a greed frenzy that took place on wall street they're responsible let's let them help us pay it back tim geithner is opposed that larry summers is opposed that even when obama said you know maybe we should consider this his advisor said no that would be a bad idea but it is a way to solve this problem without having any problem to the average american and

to the point in a brilliant point it is by the way the american way to solve this problem we had abraham lincoln put a securities tax in place. the civil war. mckinley put in place for the spanish-american war and it stood in place until the one nine hundred thirty s. f.d.r. doubled it when he created the securities exchange commission so that he could pay joe kennedy salary basically and it stood we had a quarter percent it was called a step tech security transaction excise tax right up until nine hundred sixty four at that point the taxes created so much more money than the f.c.c. needed to function that lyndon johnson did away with it it's really time to bring that state tax back do you know if there's anybody in congress who's portions well i think you know you're going to you're going to find somebody that's going to do is going to be an alan grayson is going to be bernie sanders type that have some courage and understand that we're ignoring the issue the media has done it to us

again tom they have us thinking about fiscal cliff they have us thinking about words like social security and medicare and while that's going on the phone from wall street have come away with this without anybody being punished at all and so the punishment should be to them you did this to us wall street now what you have to do is you have to get us through this problem in order to do that you know what you're going to have to pay your way into here tim geithner of all people they're supposed to be advising this president of how to get us out of this mess to hear tim geithner says no i don't want you to tax my friends on wall street is absurd it's shameful but but somebody has to have courage to come forward with that organ wall and not only that a step tax would also throw a little sand in the gears for this automated trading that has put the whole system at risk is so unstable. that it's a very very important thing thanks for bringing that might happen tonio brilliant

as always thank you for being with us tonight thank you joe. just. the. is the good the bad and the very is supercop cain is slightly ugly the good michael for forbes is a scottish farmer who despite being bullied and called names by donald trump refused to sell him his farm and land for construction of a new golf course despite being called a variety of names by trump forbes never gave in and his refusal to sell was actually documented in the scottish film as a result forbes has just named scotland's top scot of the year beating out sports stars and other celebrities for forbes sort of trump target instant dislike to him he called me a village idiot accused me of living in a pig sty and i think everyone knows by now that he's the clone of new york but

instead of myself better better myself michael the bad starbucks yesterday news broke that starbucks has been avoiding paying their fair share of taxes in the u.k. for years so how did starbucks react to the news well the company decided to slash u.k. worker pay take away paid lunch breaks and paid sick days some workers are also paid pay freezes and a lack of incentives for moving up within the company basically starbucks knows that it will now i have to pay taxes like everyone else and unfortunately the company has chosen to punish its workers in order to recoup funds to take a company that charges five bucks for a cup of coffee would be willing to pay a little in taxes. i guess not. and a very very ugly wayne la pierre lumpier president of the n.r.a. was interviewed on an n.r.a. radio program yesterday the subject of kansas city chiefs player jovan belcher's

murder suicide came up here argued the vultures girlfriend because. could have protected herself if she had a firearm you also argue that the media is biased against guns and the vast majority of americans know guns make them safer. here finished the interview by insisting that crime would actually be reduced in america more americans. chose to use the tragedy to spew this completely wrong pro-gun agenda and that it's very clearly. coming up nearly seventy percent of foods that stock supermarket shelves in america come from genetically modified organisms and can contain potentially harmful of deadly chemicals and toxins this is time our federal government took action and prevented americans from consuming dangerous foods out of this nation's toxic waste sites.

like.

but.

have you noticed the large number of c.e.o.'s going on t.v. to give their opinions on how to fix the debt we've heard the you know from goldman sachs c.e.o. lloyd bank blankfein about his suggestions for raising the retirement age for social security and medicare we've also heard from atmos c.e.o. mark hurd a leni who also argued for raising the retirement age and means testing social security medicare benefits essentially turning those programs in a welfare programs in fact seventy one c.e.o.'s have joined together as part of a so-called fix the debt coalition to call for cuts to social safety net programs instead of higher taxes on rich people like themselves and as the institute for policy studies discovered there's a good reason why these c.e.o.'s want to target social safety nets like social security and good reason is they don't need them they're all sitting on massive retirement assets averaging over nine million dollars each by bank blankfein

himself has nearly twelve million dollars in retirement assets it's easy to call for cuts to social security when you know you'll never need it. well in washington d.c. this morning the so-called fix the debt coalition invited republican senator rob portman for a panel discussion on how the debt can be fixed on the backs of the working class without the rich c.e.o.'s sacrificing a single penny unfortunately for all those c.e.o.'s that is panel didn't go quite according to plan take a look. at congress. and you. hear him. hear. what. you want but you. lose the eat your. food

but if you. order. you know they share your bread at home we ate more because. lucy. well let him speak right they were going to let him speak as portman tried to outline the republican plan to decimate the american middle class actual members of the middle class stood up one by one to tell their stories. my problem. with. it would. probably be this you'll want to ask you because you were. farmers market.

i do vision talk. for the boy was. there the spirit is there not one penny social security medicaid because we cannot. hear. it from our. citizens. for the. last. last. year and we're going to use. the other. guy. out you. are. the grown not the town me we're gonna grow and sell.

me. stuff. me. out not so easy to cause me. the i me in the corporate america got the message well we know at least one guy didn't instead he was barely angry that is speaking fee from the heritage foundation wouldn't get paid which he seems to say here would screw up things for his kids. however no doubt. everybody i don't think a. guy that i know we still through it's got all that money in the ruble doesn't always go to we're going up paying for my kids and these are the real people here. and. for the record that was ed. who attacked one of the protesters he's a millionaire a former executive a drug giant pfizer former health care lobbyist and a current scholar at the right wing heritage foundation. obviously didn't get the

message let's hope this protest serves as a lesson for the rest of americans and the wealthiest two percent of americans the middle class in this country is not going down without a fight. at the end of last year when he was running for president rick santorum told an iowa audience that he would drastically reduce federal spending on food stamps why santorum asked if hunger is a problem in america then why do we have an obesity problem among the people who we say have a hunger problem. perhaps barbecue regie ribby eating santorum is still living in the middle ages when fat bellies were a sign of wealth and plenty but in today's reality those obese and impoverished americans santorum is referring to are living the high life like the rotund of

royalty of the past are actually dying a slow and ultimately miserable death courtesy of our nation's corporate food system we hear news stories about soaring obesity diabetes and heart disease rates yet rarely make the connection back to major flaws in our national food system some local law and hers however have made those connections most notorious was new york city mayor michael bloomberg who banned the sale of large high fructose sugary beverages and restricted the use of trans fats in his city's restaurants. but these measures were generally ridiculed by the political right i'm in amid charges that the nanny state is gone too far this is a sign americans still don't understand the urgency of reforming a food system that is slowly killing us all the issue is not whether americans have access to enough food with mcdonald's and taco bell on nearly every street corner in any town usa there is no shortage of consumable fast food issue however is not

it is whether or not americans have access to enough quality food like fresh fruits and vegetables to eat the sort of food that when i just in high volumes won't slowly kills a lot of research has been done on food deserts these are rural or urban areas around the nation that generally don't have access to grocery stores as a result people living in these food deserts can't easily get the affordable fresh fruits foods necessary for a healthy diet so they've got to balance going to cheeseburger for a buck the u.s.d.a. has compiled a map showing huge swaths of food deserts all across the nation from coast to coast north to so it's estimated that more than twenty three million americans including more than three million children live in these food deserts virtually all of them are forced to rely on fast food or convenience stores for their daily food and most of these food deserts exist in low income communities but at the worst food some of

the worst food deserts you can see here are in the impoverished areas like new orleans in chicago in atlanta in memphis. speaking directly to rick santorum is point a study of the american journal of preventive medicine found that the highest rates of obesity are found in the food deserts and the lowest rates of obesity are found in communities with nearby supermarkets most simple in other words a disease inducing obesity is up wherever healthy food is scarce but food deserts are only one consequence of our deadly food system. monopoly is the other that the vast majority of what we eat and where we buy what we eat is controlled by just a handful of gigantic corporations that are far more interested in turning profits by leading droves of american consumers to the genetically modified feeding troughs

these are filled with fatty sugar filler foods and are not providing a healthy a natural diet which may be less profitable pink slime is one example of these agribusinesses trying to squeeze whatever pennies they can out of a dead cow as tom philpott points out mother jones just four companies cargill archer daniels midland bungy and louis dreyfus control up to ninety percent of the global trade in the rain in the united states three of those firms process seventy percent of the soybeans and forty percent of the wheat build in the flour the bulk of corn and soy grown by u.s. farmers ends up feeding animals and vast factories and here to the consolidation is dramatic three companies now process more than seventy percent of all beef and just four firms slaughter and pack upwards of fifty eight percent of all pork and chicken filipov points out the grocery store monopoly as well wal-mart for example

alone controls a quarter of the u.s. grocery burger and when you add in the three other largest grocer retailers together they control forty percent of the entire national grocery market and the u.s.d.a. reports that only four companies produce seventy five percent of our breakfast cereals seventy five percent of our snack foods sixty percent are cookies and half of all the ice cream grocery stores together these monopolistic corporations that are growing the majority of our food producing that food and then selling that food are feeding us junk for profit. incentivized by government backed corn subsidies major agribusinesses found huge profits in producing as much corn as they could so that's what they did and within a few years practically everything we americans ate and today eat contains some sort of corn filler most of tori's lee high fructose corn syrup part of the one nine hundred seventy s. americans didn't consume any high fructose corn syrup but by nine hundred ninety

nine each american was consuming on average forty five pounds of high fructose corn syrup every single year something which is known to be pretty healthy is monopolistic agribusiness is also in the relentless pursuit of profits have embraced genetically modified horrors extensive testing in lab animals has raised concerns that g.m.o. has increased allergies lead to reproductive problems that may cause cancers as well as numerous other antibiotic resistance diseases and upwards of seventy percent of all the food in our grocery stores comes from g.m. most further increasing the toxicity of our national food system so what are americans going to wake up well we had woken up before on our most most famous awakenings was after upton sinclair wrote the jungle in one thousand and six exposing the disease ridden corrupt american meat packing industry outrage swept the nation and eventually public pressure led to federal laws being passed like the

meat inspection act and the pure food and drug act which eventually led to the creation of the food and drug administration these combined efforts helps low the fast deaths that americans were experiencing by consuming diseased pajama native foods. but today we need similar outrage and federal action to halt the slow deaths of americans being force fed unhealthy and genetically modified fast foods it's time for fundamental changes to our nation's toxic food system. and that's the way it is tonight tuesday december fourth two thousand and twelve the more information any of the stories we cover visit our website at target dot com crispy stud or r t dot com if you missed any of the night's show you can now watch it needs to yahoo yahoo dot com slash that they think also check out our to you tube channels there are links over target dot com and also there you can check out all the different ways you can send us your feedback. and don't forget democracy begins with you get

out there and get active tag your cinema. wealthy british style sign it's time to run. the. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report.

more news today violence is once again flared up the film these are the images cobol has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day. the opinion. i am.